Time to Fix the Damage of Weakened Chemical Disaster Prevention Regulations

The Trump administration weakened regulations through changes on rules that have been improved during the Obama years. An example is the reversal in 2019 of the improvements to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Risk Management Program, Chemical Disaster Prevention Rule. In 2013 a catastrophic explosion of ammonium nitrate in West, Texas, provided the impetus to improve the original regulations after an investigation of its consequences. The justification for reversing the improvements was provided by one of the three federal investigations conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which alleged, without proof, that the West, Texas explosion was caused by arson and thus nonpreventable. This commentary reviews the details of this reversal and recommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, now under the Biden Administration, resurrect its 2016 Risk Management Program chemical disaster rule in order to prevent future chemical facility catastrophes.